1.) Big Night in the Quad Cities- What a night for the Mallards on Saturday when they welcomed the largest crowd in the CHL this season (9,347) and trounced the visiting Denver Cutthroats by a 7-1 count, the crowd was the largest at the i Wireless Center in a decade. The game featured two natural hat tricks with Mickey Lang and Mike Stinziani each striking three times. Lang’s six point night was the most points in a single game this season and it earned him the Oakley CHL Player of the Week award. Stinziani has moved up the ranks steadily and now sits as the third highest scoring rookie in the CHL with 32 points (15-17=32). Lang is tied for fourth in the league with 47 points (22-25=47) and is currently riding an eight-game point streak (14 points during his streak). The Flock travels to Arizona for games on Friday and Saturday nights.

2.) Blazing Forward- The Bloomington Blaze (21-15-1) have caught fire winning four straight games and climbing into fifth place in the Berry Conference, just one points behind fourth place Missouri. The Blaze have outscored the opposition 16-9 during their win streak but more impressively has been the defensive shutdown allowing just 110 shots in those four games (27.5/game – season average is more than 34 shots per game allowed). The Blaze have had to do their recent damage with some turmoil as Jesse Dudas (31 points), Tyler Gron (35 points), Tysen Dowzak (9 points, 62 PIM’s), Charlie Townsend (3 points in 10 games) and Sebastien Trudeau (26 points) all were placed on the team suspension list and are no longer with the club. The team has had a balanced attack over their last five games with six skaters boasting four points or more led by Nicklas Lindberg with three goals and three assists over his last five contests. The Blaze host Denver (19-15-4) on Tuesday night.

3.) MLK Day Action- The Allen Americans and the Arizona Sundogs played a matinee game on Martin Luther King Day with the Sundogs scoring a late goal and beating the Americans, 3-2. The line of Kevin Petovello (1-2=3, +3), Ron Meyers (2-1=3, +3) and Chad Purves (0-2=2, +3) combined to score all three goals and chip in with five helpers. David Brown made 22 saves earning the win for Arizona who has won five of their last seven road games. Allen is now just 1-2-2 in their last five games after dropping two of three to the Sundogs over the past four days. Tyler Ludwig and Anthony Maiani scored the goals for the Americans. Arizona will play their fourth game in five nights on Tuesday in Tulsa. Allen is off until Friday when they host Rapid City.

By the Numbers5: The number of second period goals the Bloomington Blaze scored in Friday’s 6-4 win over Denver. The Blaze got goals from Matthew Larke, Matt Puntureri, Nicklas Lindberg, Dan Barczuk and Jared Walker – all scored just 12:16 apart. The five strikes gave the Blaze a 6-1 lead as the Cutthroats scored three times in the third period making the game interesting.

One-Timers
-The Cutthroats are a disappointing 1-4-2 on their current 12-game road trip that has them in Bloomington on Tuesday, in Missouri on Friday and then in Wichita on Saturday/Sunday. Veteran Brad Smyth has yet to score a goal on the trip and has gone without finding the back of the net in each game since his 16-game point streak ended on Dec. 26 (9 games).
-Arizona’s Chad Nehring had the longest active point streak in the CHL heading into Monday afternoon’s game in Allen but he missed on a late-game empty-net goal seeing his streak come to an end. Nehring had a 13-game streak that saw him score 15 goals with eight assists. He still leads the league with 25 goals on the season.
-A pair of CHL veterans are making their way up the goal scoring list as Fort Worth’s Chad Woollard now has 293 career CHL goals ranking him sixth (just one behind Luc Beausoleil’s 294) and Rapid City’s Scott Wray now has 289 career CHL goals ranking him eighth (one behind Don Parsons’ 290).
-Tulsa’s Drew Fisher had a big week scoring four goals with an assists in the Oilers three games last week. Fisher entered the second half of the season with five goals in 37 games.
-Wichita’s R.G. Flath scored twice in Sunday’s win over Tulsa giving him 100 goals as a professional. Flath has 13 goals and 21 assists this season with the Thunder.
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